Monday, June 28, 2010

This shawl is knit from the edging inward to the back of the neck so you immediately know how the stripes are going to look at the widest point in the piece. Certain yarns with shorter color repeats, like Knit Picks Felici, just don’t have color runs long enough to stripe across that kind of width because they weren’t meant for it.

That’s where the garter ridges in the first two sections work a little visual magic. By the time you finish the edging, you’ve decreased enough that the yarn can continue stripe as it should for the rest of the shawl. The large size works for yarns with longer color runs like Noro Kureyon Sock. Because the edging comes first, it’s easy to test knit and see which size is better suited to your yarn.

Junonia refers to the genus of the buckeye butterflies. The cockleshell edging resembles the distinct buckeye markings while the blunt ended shape of the shawl looks very much like the spread wings of a butterfly.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Sorry I haven't updated...my last design is getting submitted to Knitty so I have to keep it nice and secret.After I got my KnitPicks Felici in Rainbow, I knew I wanted to make a shawl or scarf out of it.

I also knew that most sock yarns have short color runs that wouldn't go all the way around the longest point of the shawl.I decided to go with an elaborate edging to hide the areas of the shawl where the colors wouldn't run all the way across. And I decided to start knitting at the edging and decrease to the back of the neck. Kind of a weird way to do it, but it let me make sure that my edging worked the magic that I wanted.

I think I got it pegged. From this point out, the shawl is straight stockinette and the color runs are long enough to cover more than a row. Still, I know I want to make another version before I release the pattern, either in a solid yarn or one with longer color repeatsNow I just have to be motivated enough to finish it...we'll see.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

...is what I've nicknamed this project. I've made so many stupid mistakes. I ended up ripping back to the band again because I picked the project up, and managed to turn around and knit the wrong way for a few rows. Weird, right?

I'll come up with a nice beautiful name for the pattern after it is finished. (Ignore the black lines, they're lifelines so if I fudge, I'm not at square one again.)

I think I'll do two more repeats of the pattern before I close it off. I'm guessing it'll slouch a bit more after it's washed and blocked...plus the back can't really slouch with the needles pulling it tight around the top of the head.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Not really...it's knitting the design after you've decided on it that's hard...

Ok so here are my swatches... (I happened to have the same yarn in green and blue...originally was gonna go with green, but I changed my mind)The top of the swatch is really ugly because I was experimenting with how to cleanly close the top of the hat...

Then I started knitting...and after I did the entire band on size 1's, I decided to go back and redo on size 0's. I must be crazy, but the smaller band (on the left) looks way better.It's mostly the ruffling on the edge that was driving me mad. So now I'm about one pattern repeat into the hat.

It's gonna be slouchy, and when it comes time to do the decreases at the top, the lace will gradually shrink and disappear followed by the cables.